


Under 90 Seconds

by helens78



Category: Smallville
Genre: F/M, Locksport, One of My Favorites
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2006-11-26
Updated: 2006-11-26
Packaged: 2017-10-05 20:09:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,160
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/45615
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/helens78/pseuds/helens78
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Clark's always been a fan of the brute-force method, but Chloe has an interest in seeing him get out of handcuffs the old-fashioned way.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Under 90 Seconds

Clark heard the small metal clink behind him and turned his head, trying to look over his shoulder. Mostly he just saw legs-- Chloe's legs, Chloe's ankles, Chloe's black high heels. (Chloe owned black suede high heels? Why hadn't he ever noticed that before?)

"Right there," she said, and he got his eyes off her ankles and looked around for the key. She tapped her toe on it, and he rolled his eyes at her. She pulled a stepstool out from the corner and took a seat, crossing her legs and settling in to watch. "Well?"

"Chloe, this is stupid." He shrugged his shoulders, making sure to do it very carefully. They both knew if he moved his arms too much, the handcuffs would break. She'd said they were standard-issue police handcuffs, made of stainless steel, which meant they could just as easily have been made of tissue paper. The only thing keeping his arms behind his back was force of will. Which didn't make it any more comfortable. His shoulders were starting to protest already.

"How stupid is it going to be if someone figures out a way to neutralize your abilities again? Or if you're stuck somewhere with people watching you and you don't want to show off the fact that you can bend steel in your bare hands?" Chloe tilted her head up, looking past Clark to the handcuff key. "C'mon. You can do it."

Clark sighed and reached back. He looked over his shoulder again and wriggled to the left, fingers splayed out against the barn floor. At least he couldn't get splinters from the post. He stretched a little further-- just a little more--

"You're bending the chain."

"I am?" Clark glanced behind him and sighed. He couldn't see anything. "I can't even tell."

"I realize brute force is your normal modus operandi, but seriously, you're going to thank me for this one of these days. Try about an inch to your right."

"This would be a lot easier if the chain had a little more give to it," Clark muttered. He managed to snag the key, and sat up straighter. "Got it!"

"Great! The hole's near the chain. Just feel around for it." She was grinning at him like he'd just done something impressive, which was enough incentive to keep him trying for the keyhole. It figured. Tossing tractors around, saving people's lives, running from Smallville to Metropolis in under two minutes? All old hat by now. Apparently it took old-fashioned escape artistry to impress Chloe these days. Well, it was worth a shot-- not that he was trying to impress Chloe with all this. She and Jimmy were a couple these days. Or something.

Lex pointing out _a boyfriend is not a husband_ all those years ago had been coming to mind more and more often these days for some reason. Coincidence, right? Right. _Wow, I suck at lying even to myself. Great._

He managed to wriggle the key into the keyhole and grinned up at her. "I think I've got it," he said.

"Nice! If you get good at doing it this way, we can move up to helping you break out of them using common household items. Like a paperclip. Or a nail."

"Do you honestly think anybody who's cuffing me is going to give me a convenient handcuff key? Or paperclip?"

"Well, some people carry things like that around just in case."

"Some people get into trouble more than they should."

"Oh, and you don't?"

"Yeah, well... you know, this is really awkward, keeping my arms bent like this?" Awkward wasn't the half of it. He'd gotten the key into the keyhole, but now he couldn't get it to turn. Was it stuck? Maybe he wasn't twisting it hard enough. No, better not twist it too hard; it might snap. He sighed. "I bet most guys doing this don't have my build."

"Most guys on this planet don't have your build. And don't think you're getting out of this just because your trapezius muscles are noteworthy."

The last thing Clark was going to admit right now was that he didn't know which muscles, precisely, the trapezius muscles were. And was 'noteworthy' a real compliment or one of those sarcastic compliments women tossed out to confuse men?

"Still waiting..."

That was it. He _had_ to get that key to turn. Maybe there was a way to break the handcuffs and repair them at super-speed so she wouldn't notice.

"Jimmy can do this in under a minute and a half. Just so you know."

_Clink._

Clark winced. Chloe blinked at him. "Uh, Clark? The point was _not_ to break the cuffs--"

"I know! It was an accident." Clark brought his arms back in front of him and surveyed what was left of the cuffs. The key was pretty bent, but he straightened it out with no trouble. The right cuff was stretched enough he could just slip his wrist out of it, but the left cuff was basically intact. "Sorry."

"You were doing so well," Chloe said. "Do you want to try it again? I might have another pair in the car..."

"What, handcuffs just come standard in VW Bugs these days?"

She glanced up at him. "Very funny."

He'd been kidding, but the idea that she might just happen to have handcuffs in her car suddenly seemed... odd. "Were you serious? Why do you keep a spare set of handcuffs in the car?"

"I don't!"

"Okay, so how did they wind up--"

"You know what? You go ahead and keep these for practice. I bet you can fix them, and I should really be going."

Clark let it drop, but he followed her out to her car and couldn't resist giving a quick X-ray vision peek to the glove compartment. "You _do_ have handcuffs in your car. Why do you--"

"Clark--"

"Are they even yours?" _Do I want to know if they're not?_

"Would you stop that?" Chloe put a hand over the glove compartment, as if that would help. "You're right. This was a dumb idea. You don't need any help getting out of handcuffs. The brute force method works just fine."

This was the fastest Clark had seen her backpedal on anything, ever, and his eyebrows stayed up in a _you're-going-to-explain-this,-right?_ expression until she buckled her seat belt, started the engine, and waved as she turned around and sped off down the driveway.

He looked down at the cuffs.

_Jimmy can do this in under a minute and a half. Just so you know._

A few twists, a little heat vision, and he had the cuffs in working condition again. He dropped the key right where she had, just out of reach behind the post. He ran into the house and grabbed a battery-powered alarm clock, sat it up on the stool where he could see it, put his hands behind the post and locked himself in.

_-end-_


End file.
